Kean rush'd in,
gray-pale and yellow, and threw himself on a lounge in the open. His
pangs were horribly realistic. (He must have taken lessons in some
hospital.)
Fanny Kemble play'd to wonderful effect in such pieces as "Fazio,
or the Italian wife." The turning-point was jealousy. It was a
rapid-running, yet heavy-timber'd, tremendous wrenching, passionate
play. Such old pieces always seem'd to me built like an ancient ship
of the line, solid and lock'd from keel up--oak and metal and knots.
One of the finest characters was a great court lady, _Aldabella_,
enacted by Mrs. Sharpe. O how it all entranced us, and knock'd us
about, as the scenes swept on like a cyclone!
Saw Hackett at the old Park many times, and remember him well. His
renderings were first-rate in everything. He inaugurated the true "Rip
Van Winkle," and look'd and acted and dialogued it to perfection (he
was of Dutch breed, and brought up among old Holland descendants in
Kings and Queens counties, Long Island.) The play and the acting of it
have been adjusted to please popular audiences since; but there was in
that original performance certainly something of a far higher order,
more art, more reality, more resemblance, a bit of fine pathos, a
lofty _brogue_, beyond anything afterward.
One of my big treats was the rendering at the old Park of Shakspere's
"Tempest" in musical version. There was a very fine instrumental band,
not numerous, but with a capital leader. Mrs. Austin was the _Ariel_,
and Peter Richings the _Caliban_; both excellent.
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